


Goodbye, Night Vale

by InvaderHam



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-22
Updated: 2014-01-24
Packaged: 2017-12-24 08:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/937696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvaderHam/pseuds/InvaderHam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos believes he's on the brink of discovering the truth behind Night Vale. It has something to do with Cecil. But it soon becomes clear that someone doesn't want them to find it out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. SCIENCE

The sun rose above the small desert town of Night Vale, the town where time doesn't work and the Dog Park is meant only for mysterious hooded figures. It was hot and dry- it always was. Some of the horrible monstrosities which soared in the night sky went back to sleep in the underground, others just woke up. Other beings, that you or I might call "people" started going to their jobs, or hobbies. Old Woman Josie was knitting a sweater for one of the angels, people were staring at the sky, hoping that sun might hide the horrible void for a change, and several annoyed secret policemen stood in the street looking for an excuse to take someone to "reeducation". Just another Night Vale day. The city hummed with life like the many huge beasts that lived in it.  
And Cecil, the local radio announcer sat on a green, oozing chair in the break room with a pile of papers, a homemade totally-not-a-pen and a small cup of coffee. Today was his day off, but a REAL journalist's job was never done.  
"'Drink something refreshing…' 'in such a warm summer you should…blah…blah' " He mumbled to himself, reading out loud bits of the advertisements his sponsors sent to him with a baffled look on his face. "Hm, advertisement agencies today are so disconnected from the common man, I mean, how can anyone understand that?"  
He shook his head and took his totally-not-a-pen and made the usual repairs. "'Inside, you feel hated, you feel like'…" he said while writing" 'the eyes of the fire… The white of the bones…' "Suddenly his phone began to ring a familiar song; he almost threw the pages across the room.  
"Carlos?" Cecil asked gleefully.  
"Hi, uh, remember how we said we'll go to a movie today?" Carlos said from the other side "Well, I…"  
"You need to stay in your lab again?" Cecil asked sadly  
"Uh-"  
"No, no, I understand, I mean, you have an important job" Cecil sighed to himself. This wasn't an unfamiliar topic "I…I'll see you…next week, maybe?"  
"Actually, I need you right now." Carlos said "I'm working on something."  
"Really?" Cecil said, excited "a… "Science" thing?" he handed his papers and totally-not-a-pen to a passing intern "Charlie, can you finish this for me?"  
"Well, yeah" Carlos said "I have a new theory regarding the str- interesting things happening around here, but I need to check something."  
"So, I'm your… test subject" There was a dark playful tone to Cecil's voice  
"No! Well, sort of-" Carlos checked some of his notes again " think that it would be best if I explain it to you when you get here."  
"I'll be right there!" Cecil said.  
"And remember, this isn't a date, Cecil. This is an important scientific research" Carlos said, then heard a ringing at the door "We both need to act like mature professional adu-" Carlos opened the door and there stood Cecil. He was holding a very large bouquet of red roses and smiling a very wide smile  
"How did you get here so-" Carlos started asking, then just chuckled "Put those next to the others" He kissed him on the cheek and pointed toward the long shelf filled full of vases and similar bouquets Cecil had brought him since they started dating.  
Some of them were just normal flowers, others were black or dark purple with green dots, or glowed in the dark, or looked and smelled just like the heads of dead goats. Scientifically, those were interesting specimens that he was lucky to research; personally he thought that it was very sweet of Cecil.  
They went into a part of Carlos' lab that was filled with printed notes, graphs and empty coffee mugs. Cecil sat on a small wooden chair, Carlos on a swivel chair, his cheap laptop on his, well, lap.  
"So, just to be clear," Cecil said and then his voice turned dark. "Is this the kind of test that will twist my body in several dozen horrible, horrible ways that will make me curse this world for bringing me such pain?"  
"Uh, right now it's just a questionnaire" Carlos said. He turned his laptop toward Cecil for a moment to show him.  
"Awww…" Cecil sighed in disappointment.  
""Anyway," Carlos tried to put on his best no-nonsense face "Cecil, would you define yourself as an ordinary Night Vale citizen?"  
"Well…" Cecil looked away for just a second "While I am a bit of a radio personality, I must admit I never thought about myself as someone special. I'm doing a service to the community, that's all."  
"Okay." Carlos typed frantically "Question number 2, how many times have you actually left the greater Night Vale area"  
Cecil struggled to remember for a bit "Just once, in my trip after college to Europe. I talked about it on the radio, but it was a few months ago." He smiled "It was lovely"  
"Huh, I thought it was a…" Carlos stopped himself  
"What?"  
"Cecil…" Carlos got up and put his hand and Cecil's shoulder "All of those countries you mentioned don’t exist"  
"That's all?" Cecil rolled his eyes "It's probably just another case of accidental dimensional transport while flying. It happens"  
"Yes, I guess it could…" Carlos was still up, pacing back and forth in the space between his chair and Cecil's "OR it could relate to my new theory"  
"And what is that?" Cecil asked  
Carlos face lightened up, figuratively, of course, not like that time someone accidently summoned Suymatish : the Burner of Faces into Night Vale. "Well, you know how there's a lot of different stuff going on in Night Vale?" Carlos learned a while ago that using the word 'strange' only brought raised eyebrows "Glow Clouds? Hooded Figures? Man eating librarians? I managed to get some samples… with some difficulties" he pointed toward a series of jars on a different table "They're more similar then I expected; I think it's all coming from one source!" Carlos started getting more and more excited "There's some sort of an… energy signature. It's the same with all of the samples and it's the same all over Night Vale!" He handed Cecil some graphs, even though he knew he wouldn’t really understand them "But! But they seem to be a lot stronger in some places" He pulled out a map, marked with several purple circles "Places that you tend to visit"  
"Well, Night Vale IS a small town, most people visit the same places" Cecil… wasn't sure why he was trying to argue against Carlos' theory. He looked so happy about it.  
"I mean mostly places like your apartment and the radio station" Carlos pointed out  
"And your bedroom?"  
"Well, I haven't actually checked there" Carlos blushed "But considering the pattern we see here and, um…"  
"So you think I'm emitting a lot of this energy?" Cecil took a closer look at the map  
"I don't think it's exactly 'emitting' it. That was my first guess, but the patterns are very strange. I'm not sure yet what's going on" Carlos shrugged "But I do think that-"  
He noticed that Cecil was now staring at the nearest window.  
"Am I boring you, Cecil?" Carlos said "I'm sorry; it’s pretty interesting for me"  
"No! No! It just…" Cecil pointed toward the window "we're being watched"  
From outside the window, three slightly overweight men wearing a very poorly made tree costume, short capes, blowdart chestbelts and balaclavas could be seen, trying to shoo away a few birds.  
Cecil winced and whispered "I think we should at least pretend to be scared, it's common courtesy. They clearly worked hard on those costumes"  
Carlos nodded, he learned to question those kind of things later, and they both quickly crawled toward a table close to a wall "I guess I should've expected that someone would be interested in my research" Carlos shook his head "At least it's just those clowns. For now, at least."  
"Yeah, the quality of the Sheriff's Secret Police has been seriously deteriorating" Cecil frowned "I am SO going to address it in my next station editorial; it can't go on like that"  
"Anyway" Carlos whispered "my theory was –"  
At this point a small blow dart flew, apparently through the wall, and hit Carlos in the neck. He quickly collapsed on Cecil's lap  
"Carlos! Oh no! No, this can't happen! Not now – not-" Cecil stopped his panic when he saw that Carlos was breathing, albeit slowly "Oh, it's just a sleeping dart." He paused for a second "But when did the secret police start using SLEEPING darts, instead of poi-"  
And that's as far as he got before he got hit with a dart of his own.  
Although nobody else noticed it, the city trembled. Things might never be the same.


	2. Man, if this was "the Organic Lives of GLaDOS and Wheatley", getting out of there would've taken 20 chapters

Carlos couldn't open his eyes, he couldn't lift his head, everything in his body ached. He could hear sounds though, sounds that slowly turned into voices and then into words.

"And how are things going with our guy?"

"He… He's resisting."

"Our guy is resisting?"

"Yes, ma'am, it's weird."

"That never happened before, why now?"

"I… think it's the outsider."

"The outsider?"

"Yes, ma'am, I think… our guy…wants to protect him"

"Argh! That fool!"

Carlos, now a bit more focused, opened his eyes, and after a few attempts, lifted his head. He was tied to a chair at a small school desk. In front of him there were two people. One was a heavily built male, and the other was a much taller women. That was the most he could tell about them as everything else was covered by black suits, gloves, and a mask that showed only the eyes, which were hidden by large sunglasses.

"Oh, he's awake finally," the woman said, turning to her partner. "Go. I can take care of science boy on my own."

Carlos looked around, the room was, he realized, weirdly… cozy. It was well-lit, the walls were a warm orangey color, the floor was covered in wall-to-wall carpeting, there was a long table next to the wall covered with pictures of smiling children and small trinkets, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a colorful poster of a kitten hanging from a tree branch, wearing a black mask and sunglasses, with the caption "Hang in there! (No, not you)".

"That's a nice interrogation room you have there." Carlos tried to move a bit in his chair.

"Oh, please! Surveys discovered that most interrogators felt that the 'Dusty, Dark Old Dungeon' image was just creating a negative atmosphere and hampering job performance," the woman said. "Besides, have you ever tried to work in the dark while wearing sunglasses?"

The heavily built man then entered the room holding a piece of paper. "Another fax from the boss, ma'am."

The woman took the paper, read it and sighed, adding it to a rather large pile of identical papers.

"Thanks, Jim." She turned towards him. "Can you believe that? The guy's dating the news announcer and he doesn't even know about the redesign we did here!" The two turned toward Carlos.

"You don't listen to your boyfriend's show, kid?" Jim asked.

"It's always on in the background," Carlos replied, wondering why he was trying to explain this to people who had spied on him, sedated and kidnapped him, and were probably going to torture him. He was spending too much time in Night Vale. "I just...get distracted sometimes."

The two interrogators just looked at each other and chuckled.

"Of course you do," the women said.

"By my work! I mean by my work!" Carlos blushed. Yes, he really needed to get out of Night Vale for a while.

"Yes, about your work..." The woman became serious. "Jim, go back to the fax machine and keep me updated." She then turned toward Carlos. "Now, you're probably wondering why we brought you here…"

"Ah, not really," Carlos said. "You're afraid that I'm getting too close to some truth about the town so you kidnapped me." He sighed. "Really, I should've expected something like that a long time ago."

"Man! I wanted to say that all threatening and ominous-like and you just ruined it!" The woman kicked at nothing in a rather childish manner. "Oh! But it doesn't matter! You know why it doesn't matter?" She leant forwards. "Because you still don't know WHAT we're going to do to you. Do you want to know what we're going to do to you?"

Carlos swallowed, he shook his head.

"Well, you're lucky because we have no idea either!" the woman said in frustration.

Carlos could have thought of several different reactions to that statement, but he figured "WHAT?!" would do.

"I mean, when you two got here, I got a message from the higher-up." She went to the large pile of paper and pulled out the bottom sheet. "The standard stuff, you need to be killed in horrible ways, your body should be buried in an unmarked grave in the Sand Wastes, every record of your existence should be terminated...you know?" She shrugged. "But suddenly, I got another message!" She pulled another sheet from the pile. "Now I have to 're-educate' you? And then another one!" She pulled out a few more papers. "Now you need to be dealt with 'minimal damage'? Or I need to convince you to leave Night Vale? Or I need to lobotomize you? Or kill you again? I just don't know what to do! And these messages just keep coming!"

Jim entered and delivered another sheet of paper. "Another massage, ma'am," and then suddenly turned around to the sound of the distant fax machine starting up and ran from the room.

The women picked up the paper and read. "And this one just says 'RUN RUN RUN. GET AWAY FROM ME AND THIS PLACE.' And then some scribbled drawings of eyes…and then 'RUN' some more!"

Jim returned with a new fax. "And this one says…" She winced, "I don't think I can even read this one aloud in public."

The sound of the fax machine was heard again. Jim ran.

"Jim, don't bother to bring me every single fax!" she shouted after him. "Bring them in bulk!"

She threw the faxes on the floor. "Look, we're sorry about the delay. I know we're disorganized today, but it's never happened before! We promise that, if you end up with both of your lobes mostly intact, next time we'll put you in one of the deluxe chambers and give you free shock therapy." She waited for a response from Carlos. "Look, I just want our costumer's first impression to be a good one. We've never had this kind of problem before!"

Carlos wasn't really listening, he was thinking. His memories of what happened before he was knocked out had been very fuzzy, but started to quickly return. Now he remembered when he had been knocked out. He thought that it was when he came up with his theory. But now he recalled that it was later. He was with –

"Cecil! Cecil! Oh no! Where is he? You didn't take him too, right?" Carlos started to struggle, which caused his chair to slightly rock from side to side. "I hadn't even had a chance to tell him my theory! You don't have any reason to – oh what I am saying?" He stopped struggling and sighed. "If you haven't captured him he'll probably burn down half the town trying to rescue me." He then started struggling again.

"Ah, Ma'am?" Jim entered, with a huge pile of papers. "The... the higher-up is really going nuts! The room is overflowing with faxes!"

"Again, really sorry, that's never happened before." The woman made a small wave and started to leave the room.

"Wait! Wait!" Carlos cried out. He started thinking again. "If my theory is correct…then your bosses' indecisiveness must be..." Carlos' eyes widened in terror. "Stop!"

"Oh, what now?" The woman stopped.

"Okay. Listen to me," Carlos said as slowly and seriously as possible. "If I'm right, then Night Vale is in danger. You have to let Cecil go!"

The woman chuckled. "Nice try. But that's really not going to work."

"But..." Carlos said as they closed the large metal door behind them.

"Can somebody hear me? I need to save Night Vale!" Carlos struggled harder, and his chair shook from side to side so much that he felt slightly disoriented. "Hello! Someone? Hello? Help! This is serious! Possibly more than ever! I-"

Another shake and Carlos found himself and his chair falling to the side.

For a split second, as he was falling, he saw something else, instead of the room. Something covered in blood and bright smiling shapes. But by the time he hit the very real carpeting, it was back to the usual Night Vale weirdness. The absolutely real Night Vale weirdness.

"Hello? Anyone?" He shouted again, his cheek pressed against the carpeting. "Is...is this it?" He added quietly

Suddenly, he heard the sound of the door opening and a very familiar voice.

"Carlos?" Cecil asked. He was standing in the doorframe, outside of Carlos' field of vision. "I heard shouting. I… CARLOS!"

"I'm fine, Cecil," Carlos said. "Don't worry, I just need someone to untie me."

"I'm so glad you're alright!" Cecil started untying the ropes. "I mean, I was in the room next to you also tied to a chair and completely alone it was weird I guess they really are slipping I'm going to write a letter of complaint and they better give me free shock therapy or something next time I'm here and then I heard shouting and it was you and I assumed the worst and then I ran into your chamber and you're okay!"

"I'm glad you're okay, too." Carlos got up and smiled and then stopped himself. "Wait… you just ran out? You said that you were tied up like me!"

"Well…I… I suppose I wasn't tied up very well." Cecil could feel that he was sweating. It felt like he was struggling with something, but he wasn't sure with who or why. "And the ropes just slipped off when I heard you shouting. And I guess that the door was slightly open."

"Maybe…." Carlos said, not really believing it. "But it could relate to my theory again."

"Oh, really?" Cecil said, getting closer.

"Yeah, but I'll have to tell you later," Carlos whispered, going towards the door and peeking out at the hallway outside. "Right now, Night Vale could be in danger."

"So, we'll go to your lab," Cecil whispered, as he tried to peek out too. "And then," he sighed, "back to the station for me. Someone needs to update the people of Night Vale about this new crisis."

"No, this time you need to stay with me," Carlos whispered. "I need you if we want to save the town."

Cecil let out a small squee.

"Shh!" Carlos checked the door again; the coast was clear. "Come on!"

They snuck out quietly. At the end of the hallway there was a metal ladder that led to a valve door in the ceiling. No one was around; all of the interrogators apparently were busy working elsewhere. Sometimes a loud shriek of pain was heard, startling Carlos. But other than that everything was going smoothly.

This was going to be easy. Nothing could stop them from climbing up the ladder, getting back into Night Vale and finding out-

Suddenly, in unison, all the doors behind them opened and people wearing suits, black masks and sunglasses started chasing them. Not even questioning who they were or whether or not they should be caught.

"Wha-" Carlos started to say, before he remembered that there would be time to investigate this later and right now they needed to run.

The ladder, that just a few seconds beforehand was only a couple of steps away, was now far, far away at the end of a long hallway. But they eventually managed to reach it and started climbing as fast as they could. Their pursuers just stared at the ladder in confusion, as if they were not sure what their next orders were supposed to be. Cecil and Carlos didn't stick around to see if they'd made up their minds, but instead climbed up the ladder and locked the valve door from the outside.

It was afternoon, almost evening. A sign next to the door read:

"Totally absolutely Not a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft! What? Did you think that this was the entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft?! Pfft! Please… You seriously need to get your eyes checked. Or better yet, check yourself into a mental hospital. Because when you're seeing things that aren't there – like, just for example, this being a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft, you're obviously crazy! Actually, now that I think about it, mental hospitals are such a bother – you should just walk away from society and live in some cave for the rest of your life and deteriorate into cannibalism. And when future archeologists find your bleached bones they will be able to tell with but a glance that you were an insane fool who thought that this was a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft when this was clearly not! You poor fool!"

"Oh, too bad. If this was a Secret Entrance to the Abandoned Mine Shaft, it would mean that we're not that far from Night Vale," Cecil said with a completely straight face. "But, as it says on the sign, it's clearly not."

"Heh…sometimes…" Carlos was panting, "sometimes…Cecil…heh, even I…heh…can't tell if, heh, you're being sarcastic or not." Carlos tried to catch his breath and then said in the kind of voice you use when imitating someone you don't like, " 'No, Mom, you don't get it! Why should I care about gym at all? I'm going to be a famous scientist and when is sport ever going to come up then?' "

Carlos then sighed. "Cecil, did you ever get the urge to take your Middle School self and just…throw him across the room?"

"Well, as part as the Night Vale High School graduation ceremony-"

An explosion was heard behind them.

They spun around and saw Night Vale. The ground was cracking up, the skies above it were black and seem to be dripping some sort of goo. Screams were heard, buildings seem to have grown to bizarre sizes and proportions and some of them were clipped onto the other, like a bad video game glitch. People were walking on air in an infinite loop of jerky motions. Some huge tentacles could also be seen.

"Oh, no!" Carlos said "It's even worse than I thought. Looks like I was really right!"

"Really?" Cecil said, and looked around his city. "What makes you say that? I don't see anything unusual."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re-reading my own chapter, I feel the need to note that I have all the story ready in my head already, and it will make sense. I'm not just doing random stuff for the sake of it.


	3. Theories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we start this chapter, I have an important message to all of my readers out there: Don't start writing fics for ongoing works unless you're sure you can keep posting chapters at a fast rate. "Yellow Helicopters" and "Cassette" were great, but they pretty much wrecked the entire plot of this fic (and yes, I had everything planned). I agonized a bit on whether to try and fit the events of those last two episodes with the plot, or to just keep doing it as I planned and call it an AU. I think I'm just going with the latter. Trying to tie it in with the show, while possible, would be needlessly complicated and would just ruin the mystery of "Cassette". So this is a different AU, the "Yellow Helicopters" and "Cassette" episodes don't count in this realm and I hope that in spite of my lack of ability to deliver these on time, you'll still find my story enjoyable. I might use some ideas from those episodes in the story, though… (Also, this chapter is super long, to make up for the wait)

"And none of this seems stranger to you at all?" Carlos asked, as they ran into the chaotic town. He tried to stop and catch his breath again, but had to jump aside when a huge slimy tentacle burst from the ground. Say whatever you wanted about his cardiovascular condition, but living in Night Vale had done wonders for his reflexes.   
Cecil looked around, searching for something unusual. "….I guess so many events happening at once isn't something that occurs every day but-"   
At that point he had to stop, because Larry Leroy (out on the edge of town) was flung toward them by some unseen force. They dodged Larry, and he landed on the sidewalk without a scratch, although the sidewalk itself seemed a bit dented.   
"Um, Larry?" Carlos asked, worriedly while slowly backing away.  
Larry's head turned 180 degrees; he hissed and lurched toward them. They dodged him again, and again he landed on the sidewalk. This time Larry seemed to be affected by the blow and just lay there, jerking while bleeding a weird black substance.   
"Well, I don't remember him ever doing that before," Cecil said without much alarm. The ground beneath them shook. "You have a plan, right, Carlos?"  
"If my theory is correct, then just you being here should fix things up." Carlos smiled. The ground shook again. Carlos looked worried  
"Maybe… maybe it takes time," Cecil said.  
"Yeah, maybe." Carlos wasn't entirely convinced. "We'll go to my lab; I have some stuff there that can help us."  
The ground shook again, then violently ripped apart to reveal a swirling nothing with rows of sharp teeth.  
"And by 'go', I meant 'run'," Carlos said. "Again" he added to himself, bitterly.   
They started running, avoiding the holes and spikes that kept popping out of the ground, as well as the occasional resident of Night Vale who kept being tossed in their way.  
"So Carlos, you haven't told me your theory yet," Cecil said and dodged a small child that exploded into something gooey and sticky before hitting the ground.  
"Oh, yeah, sorry," Carlos said "you see-"  
A weird buzzing noise was heard, and from the corner of their eyes they could see the Glow Cloud slowly approaching, leaving behind a trail of dead animals.   
They turned a corner, and watched until the cloud was out of hearing, under the assumption that a large, glowing, mind controlling cloud had the same hearing range as a human being.  
"So, as I was saying-" Carlos said, quietly.  
But then a swarm of flies attacked them. Well, maybe "attack" was the wrong word, since the flies didn't seem to do any harm. They just gathered around Cecil and Carlos in a cloud thick enough to prevent them from talking, as just opening their mouths a little would make them choke on dozens of flies. The flies kept swirling around them as they kept running until the cloud was so dense that Cecil and Carlos had problems breathing. Then the flies just scattered off for no apparent reason, looking slightly ashamed.  
Carlos spat out a few flies. "Hmmm..." he mumbled, thinking to himself. Then he shouted "ANYWAY MY THEORY IS-"  
The sound of shrieking sirens was heard, and driving on the slowly disintegrating road as if nothing was wrong, was a black van with dark windows - which everybody knew belonged to the Sheriff's Secret Police.   
"Cecil and Carlos! You are meddling in affairs beyond your permitted levels of knowledge!" shouted someone from inside the car. "On orders of the City Council, you are to be sent to re-education. We have you surrounded!"   
Several other cars popped out, circled around Cecil and Carlos, and out of the cars came a seemingly impossible amount of baklava-wearing officers, government agents in black suits, a few familiar citizens (although Carlos could've sworn that most of them had been flung at them a few minutes ago, and looked a lot more injured when they hit the ground), and even some of the angels, clad in their usual angelic robes.   
"If you get out willingly, you'll…um… you'll…" a mumbling was heard from the main car, "…get a… a lollipop!"  
Carlos dragged Cecil into an alleyway created by one building flying in the air and crashing into the other.   
"Listen, Cecil," he sighed. He felt like a bad boyfriend for having practiced this speech in his head, but as much as he wanted to see Cecil's blind loyalty to the various shady organizations that ruled Night Vale as just an endearing quirk, he always knew that one day it would be at odds with Carlos' job. He just hoped that Cecil would understand him, that they could work it out, that it would go better than the worst case scenario Carlos’ brain kept imagining. "I know you're not going to like it at first, but…"   
However, to his surprise, Cecil grabbed him and looked at him with a very serious and concerned expression on his face.   
"Oh, dear Carlos, I think your theory might be more right then you thought!" Cecil moved from concern to fear. "Night Vale is falling apart! I'm sorry, but we'll have to defy the City Council. For the greater good of the city!"  
"Umm, I kinda expected you..." Carlos mumbled. Now he felt like a really awful boyfriend. "...never mind..." Those kinds of problems would be settled when Night Vale was safe. Well, as safe as Night Vale was usually.  
"The Sheriff's Secret Police would never work with the angels! Because they're not real! And if they were, they would never work for the City Council!" Cecil continued in a panicked tone. "Whatever did this can rip apart reality to try and capture us!" As Cecil spoke, Carlos realized that the town's chaotic streets were slowly turning back to their usual selves and the cars were disappearing.   
"And it clearly doesn't like it when you try to talk about your theory."  
"The good news is-" Carlos added, then noticed that the street being stabilized wasn't the street he expected, but one closer to the lab, "-that we don't need to worry all that much anymore. My theory is right! You're stabilizing the town!"  
Cecil looked back in surprise and suddenly Night Vale seemed to shriek. It glowed in a variety of quickly changing colors and started to disintegrate again.  
"Or maybe not..." Carlos put a determined look on his face, and they started running again.  
Quickly they went into the lab. Outside of a few broken windows, it was unharmed.  
Carlos pulled a slice of Wheat-Free Pizza, thrown at them by the giant, man-eating Pizza Blob that came out of Big Rico's to capture them, out of his hair. Cecil noticed this and immediately started cleaning the cheese remains out of Carlos' hair.   
"Cecil! Saving Night Vale now, hair later!" Carlos said, not for the first time. "Come on! This is going to help us." He went towards a half finished device on the table, turned around and saw Cecil's disappointed face. "Something is very wrong in Night Vale, you said so yourself."  
"Yes, yes... rescuing the community from the clutches of this unknown menace is more important than your h... your... then your ha-" he paused, "-more important than anything. I'm sorry, Carlos," he said to his boyfriend, who was busy finishing up his device.  
It looked like it was made mostly from household items; a vacuum cleaner, a few lamps, a small computer screen and a balloon – although from inside it, Cecil could hear the humming and buzzing of the various scientific devices Carlos kept in his lab, which Cecil was never quite sure what they did but they were still fascinating.   
Carlos looked very pleased with himself, checking to see if any sort of crazy things were going to attack his new device. "This is supposed to-" he then looked around nervously. "Remember what I told you this morning? About the energy that I believe holds Night Vale together?" For the sake of his lab, he avoided explaining more about his theory. "This is going to cancel that energy," he petted the device affectionately, "just temporarily, so it won't do any permanent damage to Night Vale, but we will still be able to defend ourselves."   
Carlos wondered how he could test whether it would work, then realized that he knew the answer to that question. "SO, ABOUT MY THEORY!" he shouted.  
The giant pizza hand broke through the wall and tried to grab them. Carlos aimed the device at the creature. Without anything like a flash of light, or a glowing energy wave, the hand shook and turned into sand.  
"Sand? That's… not what I expected." Carlos handed over the device to Cecil and carefully touched the sand. It felt like real sand, although that wasn’t saying much, since a few moments ago it felt like a real giant wheat-free pizza monster.  
Suddenly the sand shifted again into a solid form. Carlos didn't even have time to blink before he was grabbed by the giant disembodied hand. Cecil aimed the device at the thing and it turned back into sand.  
"Keep it on!" Carlos shouted and moved back as fast as he could. "I don't understand! That should've worked!" he bumped into one of the tables, picked some of his notes and checked them.  
"It did-"  
"No! It should've neutralized the energy effect longer!" Carlos yelled at himself. "Something is wrong here!"  
Suddenly Cecil's phone started ringing.  
"Oh, that's Intern Charlie," Cecil said. "I guess Station Management wants me to do a special report. Carlos, do you mind answering it for me? We shouldn't anger Management."  
Carlos answered the phone and a young voice on the other side said, "Cecil, you fool. Just give up on him and get everything back to how it's supposed to be." Then Carlos noticed that the phone started heating up and quickly threw it to the ground, where it exploded.  
"Oh..." Cecil said. "That's the third one this month..."   
Carlos wondered if he meant the intern or the phone. Probably the phone; interns died at a much faster rate.   
The city shook again.   
"Um, Carlos… this theory of yours…" Cecil said, worriedly.  
"I don't know! It should've worked!" Carlos stopped for a second and threw his notes away "I'm such an idiot! I was so sure I was on to something I… arrgh!" He sat down and rested his head on the table. "…idiot…" he mumbled.  
"Carlos…" Cecil looked at him, he really wanted to go and comfort Carlos. But he had that curious piece of sand to keep in check and-  
Suddenly the sand disappeared. Cecil didn't notice because he was too busy with Carlos, but the chaos outside the lab calmed down.  
Just enough to give him and Carlos some time, but not too much to make it obvious like last time.  
Carlos noticed Cecil's hand stroking his back, he looked up.   
"I'm sorry for dragging you all the way here, I was just…everything seemed to come together for a second," Carlos said, "but, I think my theory is incorrect."  
Suddenly everything went quiet.  
"Wait, I think it actually-?" Cecil started. Everything went crazy again, and judging from the intensity of the screaming and other noises outside, it was worse than before. Several things flew over their heads, but were not really attempting to hurt, or even capture them.   
"I… think that… whatever is doing all of this, is upset," Carlos said. "It thought that I was on to something, too. So it just wasted its time trying to stop me from telling you my theory."  
There was another shriek. Actually, it sounded more like hundreds of shrieks, like every citizen in Night Vale was screaming as loud as they could, which was only supposed to happen on special occasions like weddings, or an 85% sale on dairy products at the Ralph's.  
"You know, Carlos, I'm still pretty curious about that theory of yours." Cecil smiled an incredibly dorky smile. "You implied that I was… pretty central to its main idea."  
"Yes, well. My theory WAS-" Carlos emphasized the last word as much as he could. They both flinched, but nothing happened. "-that this town is like one living creature. The energy readings I've picked up are part of what connects it all together. But it creates too much energy, so it focuses on a certain person to balance itself. I thought you were this person. That Night Vale used you, and possibly the other radio announcers before you, to balance itself. And that the chaos in the town was because you left and made Night Vale go off balance. But if THAT was true, things should've been fixed by now. So I think-"  
Carlos noticed suddenly that Cecil had returned to worryingly and gently cleaning up bits of cheese and sand out of Carlos' hair.   
"Hair. Later. Cecil." Cecil sighed sadly. "When we finish saving Night Vale, I promise you'll get to wash my hair tonight"  
"Really?" Cecil squealed in happiness.   
"Oh, yeah. And you can shampoo it" Carlos gave Cecil his device. It might not have been as effective as Carlos had thought, but at least it did something. He also kept some weapons at his lab just in case, although he hoped it would never come to this. He didn't actually know how to use them and he would probably look really pathetic if he tried to. Still, he tucked a gun into his lab coat pocket, and several protection spells Cecil had recommended to him into the other one. "But right now, we have a town to save… " they started walking to the main door, "and I don't even know where-"  
Carlos opened the door and realized that his lab was actually floating, perhaps 20 meters from the ground. Night Vale was still glitchy, and several other buildings were also floating.   
"The library would be a good place to start!" Cecil said happily and pointed to the building, which was indeed close enough to the lab that they could jump to it. “Normally, I would have said we should avoid it, but…" he shrugged, "librarians are really not as bad as some of the other things we had to deal with today." Cecil was still pretty excited about saying "we". For a change, he and his Carlos were actually going on a Night-Vale saving adventure together, instead of him having to stay behind.   
Carlos agreed, and with slight difficulty, the two jumped to the entrance of the library. Cecil opened the doors. Inside the library was even more badly lit then usually and it looked abandoned, which wasn't unusual. Librarians are good at sneaking.  
"Remember, if we do meet a librarian, we should both cut off one of our arms and offer them as gifts," Cecil said, using his phone as a flashlight. "There's a 67% chance they'll accept it and leave us alone, okay?"  
"Yes, Cecil, you tell me that every time I go to the library…" Carlos answered.  
"I'm just worried-WAIT!" Cecil suddenly shouted, "I haven't thought about what we should do if the librarian accepts one offering, but not the other…" He pondered for a second. "Carlos! We should totally connect the remaining arm to the other person!" He waited for an excited reaction from Carlos. "Like, if the librarian doesn’t eat my arm, you could have it and if your arm doesn't get eaten, I would get it! Isn't that, like, the most romantic thing ever?"   
"I don't think we'll meet a librarian. I think this place really is abandoned" Carlos replied, and then noticed the books. There was something wrong. "I'm pretty sure those books weren't here before…" He took one off the shelf. "'The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre'? Have you seen this book here before?"   
"Oh Carlos, you know I don't like all those hyper-realistic stories," Cecil rolled his eyes. "But… I don't think I ever saw this book before…" his head started to hurt again,"…anywhere"  
Carlos took a closer look at the book; it was in bad shape, but not in the usual Night Vale Public Library way. Yes, there was an occasional blood splatter, but mostly it just had slightly torn pages (not shredded with claws, just a bit torn) and silly doodles. Normal things you could find in any "favorite book" of a child or teenager. He had a few books like that, mostly the "Young Scientist" types of books. It was hard to read the text with only the light from his phone but from what he could tell, it was indeed just a normal collection of Lovecraft stories. Carlos browsed through the pages, looking for something unusual and then stopped at the first page.   
On the first page, someone had written a name. Presumably someone who once owned the book and wanted people to know whose it was in case it ever got lost. Someone had written, “Cecil G. Palmer."  
"You… never saw this book before?" Carlos asked.  
Cecil grabbed the book and looked at the cover. "No" he gave Carlos the book back "why?"  
"Well…" Carlos was starting to think about what to tell Cecil, when he noticed the book was suddenly replaced by a brain dripping blood. Carlos automatically threw it away in disgust. They both looked around, confused, then the library suddenly blinked out of existence and was replaced by something else.  
Something similar, but blood-soaked, and filled with bright, smiling shapes.


	4. Trigger Warning: Desert Bluffs

The walls of this library were either covered, or made of, flesh. On the shelves there were still a few books, with bright pink and yellow covers and titles like "WORK" and "The Joys of StrexCorp", but also plenty of bleeding human organs, some completely unrecognizable.   
Carlos quickly closed his eyes in terror and went through his usual routine whenever Night Vale horrified him; cleaning his mind, breathing deeply, trying to consider how scientifically interesting this was and clinging to Cecil. But to Carlos’ surprise, Cecil clung to him even harder than that one time Cecil caught him eating a non-Wheat-and-Wheat By-Products-Free cake.   
"Oh, no… no… not again…" Cecil mumbled. "Carlos, we need to get out of this wretched place! This is not Night Vale!"  
Carlos gently kissed Cecil, calming him down, then out of the corner of his eye Carlos saw what looked like a smashed human head and a blood covered arm. "Yes, getting out of here sounds like a pretty good idea." They started running back outside, only for Carlos to stop suddenly and say, "What do you mean 'again'?"  
"Do you remember that sandstorm from a few months ago? Did you listen to my show that day?" Cecil asked, still very distraught. "The black, almost indigo, vortex? That horrible, horrible place? This is this place!"  
"Yeah, I listened to it…but it's been a while… the thing I remembered the most was…that man…" Carlos' mind begun to connect the dots. "Cecil, I think this is Desert Bluffs!"  
"Really? It's not as bad as I imagined" Cecil returned to his usual nigh-unflappable self for a moment. "Of course, this is pretty horrifying. But I just thought it would be much worse."  
They started going towards the door again.  
"So what makes you think that this is Desert Bluffs?" Cecil asked.  
"When you went through the vortex, someone else came from the other side." Carlos opened the door. "And he said he was from Desert Bl-"  
They weren't outside the library of either Night Vale or Desert Bluffs, they weren't outside at all. They were in the middle of a room. The walls were completely covered in posters, which were mainly white with words like "Lies" or "DON'T believe in a smiling god" written on them, but if you looked closely, it was clear that they were covering bloody walls similar to those in the library. There was a bed, with bright, eye-hurting yellow sheets that had a pattern of orange triangles with an ‘S’ in the middle. There was a desk, covered by a table map, with a few textbooks and papers on it. Carlos guessed that if he removed the map, he'd discover that the desk was made of guts, bone, flesh and other…pleasant…materials. Above the bed, there was a clumsy, self-made wooden shelf full of books. The floor was covered in rags and discarded clothing.   
"Some sort of teleporting accident, I guess?" Carlos said, looking around the room. He whipped out his Smartphone. "I have done research on similar phenomenon in Night Vale before. Hold on, I think maybe I have something in my email… or maybe someone on my team put it on Google Docs."  
"Oh, you look so brave when you're in science mode!" Cecil forgot where he was again for a second and leant against the poster-covered wall, which made a blood-filled squishy noise. "And you can focus on it so well in spite of being in this…vile nightmare."  
"Well…um… I'm used to… um…" Carlos struggled with a good way to say it. "At least that doesn't break too many rules of physics."  
"…the rules of physics…" Cecil replied mockingly.  
"You’re taking it pretty well, too" Carlos said, remembering that was one of the few times Cecil had to deal with something outside of his odd definition of "normal", after all.  
"Only because you're with me, Carlos," Cecil said, and held Carlos' hand tightly.  
"T…thanks…" Carlos mumbled, blushing and returning to his phone. "Dammit! The connection here is crap!" He knocked on the phone a couple of times. As a scientist, he knew that that in no way affected the ability of the phone to receive Wi-Fi signals, but as a human being, it certainly helped his frustrations. "I would suggest going someplace else." The room didn’t have any visible doors, but that probably meant that they were also covered by the posters… or at least, Carlos hoped so. "But, if this whole place, Desert Bluffs or whatever it is, is really all covered in gore, then I think we should probably stay here as long as we can."  
"So, at least until whoever lives here comes in," Cecil added.  
Carlos suddenly noticed the books on the shelf. They were same books from the Night Vale library. He grabbed the copy of "The Best of H. P. Lovecraft" and quickly called,"Cecil! I need you here!"  
Cecil looked over Carlos' shoulder, as Carlos quickly turned0 the pages and mumbled about how much he hoped he was not wrong again. All the little "Favorite book of a teenager" details were still there, as was what Carlos was looking for; Cecil's name.  
Cecil yanked the book from Carlos' hands, but before Cecil could examine it more closely, the book dissolved into sand. Cecil’s mysterious headache came back, this time so horribly that it left him lying on the floor in a fetal position.   
Carlos did a quick medical examination of Cecil, but with the lack of tools he had in this weird and rapidly-turning-into-sand room, he couldn't find anything wrong with him. So either Cecil had nothing physically wrong, and whatever was causing the pain existed beyond that realm, or whatever was wrong with Cecil was just not detectable by things Carlos has learned during basic first aid courses. The first option was a ridiculous, supernatural theory and the other was pretty logical. So, considering Night Vale, that meant that the first option was probably correct.  
The room completely dissolved and turned into a pile of sand, which blew away in a sudden gust of wind. They were in Night Vale again, on a street not far away from the Dog Park. Everything was unusually peaceful. Carlos hoped for a second that Night Vale just managed to sort itself out and all that panic and fuss was just him taking the weirdness of Night Vale too seriously again. But Cecil's pain didn't stop, and the sidewalk and buildings had a strange, sand-like feel to them. Carlos helped Cecil to his feet, while considering everything that had happened so far. Carlos really wished that he had kept notes, because there was a lot of stuff that needed connecting and his original theory was off the table for now, but... whatever was responsible, it seemed to be sentient and it seemed to be focused on keeping them from finding out… something.  
"Okay, I know you're trying to trick us!" Carlos shouted at the sky. Even if it turned out he was horribly wrong and everything was okay, he really wouldn't embarrass himself, since shouting nonsense at the heavens was an acceptable hobby in Night Vale. "But I am not going to sto-"   
Carlos felt Cecil clutching his hand, they looked at each other. "WE'RE not going to stop, until we find out what you are and what are you doing, and you'll find out that YOU. DO NOT. MESS. AROUND. WITH. A. SCIENTIST'S. BOYFRIEND!" Carlos paused, then face-palmed "Okay, that was a stupid thing to say, I swear it sounded better in my head."  
Suddenly, Cecil's phone made the inhuman screech of a soul being confronted with its insignificance versus the eternity of the void, which meant that Cecil had a new message. Carlos took out the phone, although he was pretty sure that it had exploded in front of his eyes a while ago.   
The message read, "Unfortunately, the outsider is right."   
And then another message appeared. "Cecil, we need to talk. Come to the Dog Park. Bring the outsider."  
"Eh, excuse me!" Carlos shouted at the sky again. "But ‘the outsider’ would like to point out that, thanks to you, Cecil can't really go anywhere!"   
"No, no, it's okay, Carlos" Cecil said suddenly. "I feel better, a lot better, actually!"  
Carlos glared at the sky. "…We should go, then…" Carlos said, very unsure, dusting his lab coat "I mean, Night Vale IS in danger… I think." He sighed. "This is a very confusing day."  
Suddenly, Carlos’ phone also received a message. It read: "Besides, THAT was all your fault, outsider".  
"Yeah, we really need to go," Carlos swallowed.  
They ran to the Dog Park, and found that its sleek black gates were open, and behind the gates there seemed to be a sandy desert. They stepped inside.  
"Huh, that looks nothing like what Dana described," Cecil said.  
Carlos just clung harder to the gun in the pocket of his lab coat. Of all the ways he expected his investigation of Night Vale to go horribly wrong, that… was pretty far off. He would've been less nervous if it was a big action-filled climax, or something like what had been going on earlier. However this peacefulness and relative normality was driving him nuts.  
A short figure, wearing a dark robe (though a different one from what was typical of a Hooded Figure) approached them. Carlos instinctively pulled out the gun.   
The figure seemed to shake its head, lifted its hand and the gun melted into sand.  
"Carlos, did you really think that was going to work?" The voice was… familiar, albeit higher pitched and squeaker and younger. "And you were holding it all wrong, anyway, you never used a gun before, huh?"   
The figure removed its robe in a quick motion. Its face was identical to Cecil’s but younger and covered with pimples, and its hair was messier. It was wearing bright clothing covered with occasional blood splatters. It grinned a dorky braces-filled grin and said, "So, like I told you; Cecil, we really need to talk."


	5. Twice the Cecil, Twice the Fun!

"What is going on?!" Carlos yelled at the younger Cecil.  
The older Cecil grabbed Carlos’ arm and pulled him back. "Carlos, you're being impolite." Cecil smiled at him. "He said he wanted to talk, I'm sure he's going to explain everything to us and it will all make sense."  
Carlos narrowed his eyes in disbelief, but stepped back.  
"Yeah…" the younger Cecil looked aside awkwardly, then he snapped his fingers and three chairs rose up from the sand. "We and Carlos should sit down. This…might take a while."  
They sat down. The chairs felt absolutely real in every way.  
"We suppose…" the younger Cecil began, biting his lip.  
Carlos noticed that something in the body language was very similar to Cecil, but…off. It was a bit too unnatural and forced, like someone who observed Cecil very closely and knew all his little quirks was trying to imitate him.  
"We suppose that it's best to start at the very beginning-"  
"-are you going to explain what you are?" Carlos interrupted. "Is this a time travel thing?" he asked the older Cecil.  
"Well, it sure seems…no, I don't think so …it doesn't feel right…"  
"We will explain everything, we promise," the younger Cecil said calmly. "But first you need to SHUT UP FOR A SECOND YOU NOSY OUTSIDER!"  
When the young Cecil shouted, his voice had a strange echo to it. He then paused and smiled another dorky smile. "So let's begin our story…"  
He waved his hand slightly and a small sand model of a town rose from the ground.  
"That's Night Vale, right?" older Cecil asked.  
"Well… not quite, this is Desert Bluffs," the younger Cecil answered. "At least, Desert Bluffs from when our story takes place. From what we realize the place has advanced a lot from back then. If there's one thing we can say about StrexCorp is that they have always been very efficient with progress."  
"StrexCorp? I know that name." Carlos said. "It's a pretty big corporation. What do they have to do with Desert Bluffs?"  
"I’ve never heard that name," the real Cecil said. "I think…" he sighed, "this is much more confusing than the usual existential crisis…at least I know how to handle those."  
"Yeah, well another thing StrexCorp is good at is covering up stuff," the young Cecil said. "You're not curious why you never heard about the gore-covered state of the town, Carlos?"  
"Yeah, I was wondering about that…" Carlos replied. Night Vale was a pretty secluded place, but he still heard things about it. Desert Bluffs was always considered a completely normal city.  
"StrexCorp does more than just normal corporation stuff. They slowly buy entire towns and turn all the people there into their slaves…" The younger Cecil then started to…degenerate. His tone and mannerism did not resemble Cecil when he spoke about something he hated. His voice became inhumanly high pitched and body language more erratic. His skin started developing a sandlike texture. "W…with happiness-inducing drugs, and violent gory death to anyone who goes against Strex and…"  
Younger Cecil started glowing purple and the ground started shaking, and then suddenly stopped. "Oh, dear, we're sorry. We think we lost concentration for a bit, we just hate them so much." He chuckled.  
Carlos thought the younger Cecil description didn't sound all that much worse than Night Vale, outside of being more gory, but now was not the time to argue with Cecil. Much less with two of him.  
"Anyway, back to our story," the young Cecil continued. "In this town, there was a boy, who wasn't like all the other people there. He was a freak, a weirdo. Not only he was interested in reading books about evil computers and monsters and conspiracies, rather than hugging techniques or the joys of working, not only was he interested in the dark and the strange, not only did he talk and act in an odd way, but he also had… powers. He could make things happen… create things." He moved his hand around, making the model spin. "Which would have been a pretty good thing for StrexCorp if the powers didn't also made the poor boy immune to all forms of mind control. The boy was mocked, and bullied and experimented on, until one day he managed to control his powers enough to escape." A small explosion happened in the model city and a tiny figure ran from it. "He ran and ran, but as Desert Bluffs disappeared over the horizon," the model, save for the tiny figure, dissolved into sand again, "the boy realized he had nowhere to go. It was clear that even if he could find someplace away from StrexCorp’s influence, people would still hate him, he would still be a freak. So he created his own town." The younger Cecil's face brightened as he made a new model city rise from the ground. "A place where he was normal, because everyone else was just as odd as him. Where all kinds of exciting and scary things happened all the time and things from his favorite stories were real. Where everybody knew everybody and there was a real sense of community."  
The younger Cecil now spoke a bit more softly. "Creating such a complex thing put a real strain on his powers, and he couldn't use them consciously anymore. He could only keep his new home active and safe subconsciously. But the boy didn't mind. He didn't want to rule his town, or to be anyone important, he just wanted to be like everyone else. So he also pushed away his real memories, of StrexCorp and Desert Bluffs and the feelings that made him create the town in the first place and he created new, better memories. But the real memories and feelings didn't go away, they were just blocked.  
“And now the boy has grown up and he might do something stupid, so those memories had to be given physical form," Cecil’s manifestation excitedly gestured towards itself, "to prevent him from ruining everything that he created. The end," it added coldly.  
The real Cecil was distraught. "So this was about me and Night Vale…a…and…" He sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "Carlos, please tell me that you saw some hole in that story… or that you found it ridiculous or… or SOMETHING?!"  
Carlos shrugged. "Night Vale being the creation of a young sci-fi and horror geek? I can believe that."  
"CARLOS!" Cecil shouted in distress.  
"Sorry, bad joke, I really shouldn't have said that. It's a lot for you to take, huh?" Carlos took Cecil’s hand.  
"Maybe I just need some time to process it," Cecil replied. Carlos hugged him.  
"Wait, so nobody from StrexCorp ever tried to look for you - for Cecil"? Carlos asked the manifestation.  
"After we created Night Vale, we also created a double of us that went back to Desert Bluffs and said something about realizing the error of his ways…and that he lost his powers in the desert…" The manifestation shrugged. "It's still there… it has degenerated a bit due to being so far away from us, but it's still doing its job…argh…do you have to know everything?"  
"Yes," Carlos answered, dusting off his lab coat. "So… are you a split personality or something?"  
"Sort of… This-" the manifestation gestured toward itself, "doesn't have any self-awareness, just like the people in Night Vale. It's simply a puppet we subconsciously control, and we make it act like it's sentient because it's easier to communicate and argue with something like that."  
"Argue?" Carlos asked.  
"Oh, yes. The reason why we decided we need to explain everything to us," the Manifestation replied. "We've stumbled over little holes in our paradise before, we’ve had our suspicions. But usually we dealt with it pretty easily. We had the Secret Police take us to "re-education", where we just made ourselves forget about the thing that made us suspicious and fix whatever flaw was in Night Vale. But this time…" it sighed, "you were there. It was your fault," it pointed at Carlos, "and we knew that ‘fixing Night Vale’ would mean we would have to…get rid of you. And we didn't know what to do, and you saw what kind of mess happened… buildings floating in the air, giant monsters." It waved its hand absent-mindedly. "And by the time we realized that you weren't actually close to the truth at the start of it, it was too late. We couldn't make our mind work the way normal people did, so the logical solution was to manifest the memories and feelings that made us create Night Vale in the first place into this sand puppet and have it explain everything to our conscious self," it pointed at Cecil, "then we could discuss and convince us to remain in Night Vale!"  
"Oh, naturally," Carols said sarcastically. It was Cecil's mind, after all.  
"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP ALREADY?" the manifestation yelled again. "DIDN'T YOU CAUSE ENOUGH DAMAGE? IF YOU REALLY LOVED US, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE CAUSED ALL OF THIS! YOU MANIPULATIVE, NOSY OUTSIDER!"  
Carlos just sat there for a while. He suddenly wanted to run home and close himself off from the world. He knew that it was just a bizarre sand projection and probably overreacting, but for some reason it really got the "you are horrible and don’t deserve anyone’s love" parts of his brain going. Maybe it was the fact that the manifestation looked and sounded so similar to Cecil. Or maybe it was the fact that Carlos’ brain was used to thinking like that for so long.  
Cecil was also worried, but for a different reason. He got off the chair, grabbed Carlos and took him to the side. "C…Carlos, if this kid is part of my mind, then what he said to you was-oh, sweet Carlos, I love you, but-" the thought that he was unknowingly holding back all that poison toward Carlos was just another worrying thing in this very bizarre day- "I mean, I obviously didn't know about any of that, so it's possible that I just didn't know about this, either. And there was one time I thought my favorite ice cream flavor was pistachio, but then the City Council announced that the favorite ice cream of all the town's citizens was actually Eldritch…but, that never happened anyway. Really, when you get right down to it nothing in my life really happened." No matter how Cecil examined it, he couldn’t find any positive way to look at the situation.  
Carlos hugged Cecil again. "It's…well… look at it this way…"  
Dammit, he couldn’t do it. Carlos wanted to comfort Cecil, but he had no idea how. It's not like he had ever been in a situation like that. He could say the wrong thing and make everything worse. Cecil was actually good at that kind of thing. If the roles were reversed, Cecil would've found what to say by now. Carlos was just terrible at everything that didn't involve locking himself in a lab alone with a couple of test tubes. He-  
Carlos tried to push those thoughts away.  
"Look, I… if you're worried about what that version of you said to me… it said it was just a collection of your feelings that caused you to create Night Vale in the first place. I don't think it CAN feel anything about me outside of ‘that one person who ruined everything’”. Carlos chuckled nervously. "And I know you love me, and I love you, too. And I'm going to help you get through it, I promise." Carlos knew it was a really trite thing to say, but that was the most accurate way he could put it. Maybe their whole relationship was trite, but he didn't care.  
"Oh, thank you, Carlos!" Cecil said as he gave him a big hug and a kiss. Cecil still was unsure and more than a little confused, but at least he had something he could rely on. "And you know something? For you, maybe I will leave Night Vale!"  
The manifestation suddenly appeared behind them. "WHAT?! We can't be serious!" it groaned. "Cecil, we're about to make a huge mistake."  
"Um, d…do you think?" Cecil held Carlos' hand tightly. Cecil had to admit he didn't really think before he said that, and he wasn't sure he could now back away from that statement even if he wanted to. "Night Vale is my home, even if it's not real, and I guess simply making me forget everything that happened would be the most efficient way to handle this current crisis regarding everything in my life, but… but Carlos is really…neat, and I don’t think he'll like living in a lie forever." Cecil leaned closer to the manifestation. "He's always going on about ‘uncovering secrets for science’ and ‘Cecil, you can't just ignore the black hole in your refrigerator just because the Sheriff's Secret Police told you so’. It's adorable!" he chuckled, "but…"  
"WE CANNOT BELIEVE THAT WE COULD BE THAT STUPID! We just told us what was at stake!" The manifestation groaned again. "Wh-what if… what if I told us that Carlos is as made up as the rest of Night Vale?"


	6. Goodbye

Carlos stepped back in shock. "W-what?! This can't be true!"  
"Oh, so when we have a crisis regarding the terrible truth you crack jokes," The manifestation shouted, "but when it's about you, it 'can't be true', huh?"  
"N-No! What I meant is, it literally cannot be true! You said the people of Night Vale were all non-sentient, but I know I have self awareness, and if I need to convince Cecil then I would like to point out that I would act in a way that makes no sense if I was controlled by you… or Cecil's subconscious…or whatever. If I was Cecil's creation I wouldn't have tried to look for the truth behind Night Vale in the first place, and I would've started malfunctioning with the rest of the town, and I wouldn't be arguing with you…" Carlos took a deep breath. "I have more, but I think you get the point."  
"Yeah, well… we're not sure what happened there either…" the manifestation twiddled its fingers, "but it seems that we put so much attention and emotion into you that you became self-aware somehow. We're still trying to figure that one out."  
"But…" said Carlos, trying to think of a counter-argument.  
"But I thought…" Cecil started to say at the same time.  
"Oh, you thought WHAT?" The manifestation yelled and grabbed Cecil. "That someone real could actually love us? Let alone someone who is wonderful and smart and beautiful and normal? That ANYONE could have any sort of feelings for us that we didn't create ourselves? We are a freak, and nothing can ever change this fact! We are unloved and we deserve it." The manifestation started floating. "We need to stay here, this is the only place we can be happy. They'll hate us outside. They'll lock us in a lab as the ‘greatest new scientific discovery’. And even if they don't, we still can't live with normal people." It flung Cecil to the ground. "Don't we see? We need Night Vale, it's the only place we can be happy. Why shouldn't we live a lie? We do it all the time anyway, don't we, Cecil? We like blindly following orders, so why don't we follow the one that is actually the best for us? Living in this delusion is the only way we can be happy and-"  
A bunch of pens and a notepad were thrown at the manifestation's head. They were the first things Carlos found in his pockets. "Leave him alone!"  
"Oh, why do you care about us, science boy?" the manifestation sneered. "We already told you that any sort of love you feel toward us is fake!"  
"Y…you told me that a lot of things about my life are fake." Carlos replied, while helping Cecil up. "My family, my childhood, my friends…" Carols sighed sadly. "But we also established that I have free will. If I chose to try to uncover the truth behind Night Vale in spite of what Cecil wanted, why would my feelings be fake?" He turned to Cecil. "Are you okay?"  
"Well, physically, yes," Cecil replied, which was rather surprising considering from what height and with what force he had been thrown.  
"Oh, eh, of course," the manifestation commented, floating back to the ground.  
"Also, since you said I was ‘Normal’, I'm going to assume that my memories of how the outside world, the normal world, works are factually correct?" Carlos grinned. "I wouldn't be normal if I was working by Different-from-Night-Vale-but-still-made-up-by-Cecil-logic?"  
"Um… yes?" the manifestation answered. Carlos wondered whether it could actually be confused, or whether it was just pretending for some reason, or whether the subconscious that controlled it was confused.  
"And that includes my scientific knowledge, right?" Cecil asked.  
"Um, sure?" the Manifestation replied.  
"Yes!" Carlos did a clumsy little fist pump.  
"Oh, so all you care about is whatever you're a ‘Real Scientist’ or not?" The manifestation crossed its arms.  
"You know, you're really starting to repeat yourself, aren't you?" Cecil said. "Carlos, this kid really hates you."  
"No… I don't think it's about me," Carlos said. "Can we have some privacy?"  
"You are aware that since this manifestation is controlled by our subconscious, you can't really talk to us behind its back?" The manifestation pointed out. "Perhaps we were too quick to say that you're still a scientist."  
"I guess I know that, I just don't want you watching us. It's creepy," Carlos said. "And I really don't want you to interrupt our conversation."  
"Oh, very well!" The manifestation raised its hand, and four gray concrete walls rose around Cecil and Carlos.  
"Cecil… what that thing does…it…"  
Carlos tried to focus. He knew what he wanted to say, but all those new revelations made things confusing. The best idea was probably to think about all the philosophical implications after this whole mess was sorted out.  
"He's not angry at me. This whole 'you don't really love us’ thing is not about making me feel bad, it's…he wants you to feel unloved and alone."  
"But… he IS me! Well, a part of me," Cecil said. "How does that even work?"  
"Well, maybe 'want' is the wrong word," Carlos shrugged, "but that's what he thinks is true. That's the real reason why he wants you to stay in Night Vale. He's saying that you need to stay alone and away from everyone because something is wrong with you, and that nobody can love you, and that you ‘deserve’ to live like that, and it's better for you to wallow in self-hatred forever and…"  
Cecil noticed Carlos' tone. "Carlos is there something you want to tell me?"  
"Well, I guess…" It wasn’t that Carlos was trying to hide it from Cecil or anything. It was just kind of awkward to talk about and it had never come up before. "I guess you could say that I've been in a very similar situation…"  
Cecil stared at him in disbelief.  
"No! Not like that! “ said Carlos. “What I meant was…."  
Most of Carlos’ memories were apparently false, but he was pretty sure he could still rely on his memories of what happened after he entered Night Vale, since he had always meant to discover what was going on with the town.  
"…feeling that you hate yourself so much that you’d rather just close yourself off from everyone else and be lonely forever." Carlos took Cecil's hand. "That's what I meant… my brain kept telling me that, for a very long time. Well, I…guess since I was created."  
"Oh, I'm sorry about that."  
"It's okay, you… you weren't aware of what you were doing." How much could Carlos blame Cecil for something he did subconsciously?  
"But, you really thought you all of that stuff about yourself?" Cecil gently stroked Carlos' face. "I mean, look at you!"  
"Y…yeah… really," Carlos blushed. "Sometimes, the feeling does come back, but it's easier to deal with now, because…because…" he smiled, "well, partly because I have you. And I want you to know that you have me, too, no matter what he says. And you're not a freak and not unloved and you deserve better. Staying in Night Vale is not good for you; it's just going to feed into those repressed feelings like…like…" Carlos was not very good with metaphors. "Do you remember those giant bugs from a few months ago that attached to people's hearts and then fed on random emotions? Like that, but the bugs are your own mind and they convince you to keep feeling that emotion no matter how much it hurts you…I guess. The point is, prove him wrong and make him shut up!"  
"Wow, it's really that bad, Carlos? I'm not saying that you're not right about all of this. It’s just… hard for me, and it's not just about what the boy outside said. It's about identity." Cecil said, gloomily. "You are a Scientist. That was enough to make you feel a bit like yourself even after you discovered your entire life was a lie. You can cling to that, and you can be a scientist anywhere. I'm… I'm the Night Vale Community Radio Host, Night Vale IS part of who I am, and I love being part of its community and I need it."  
"I never said that was going to be easy, but I promised I'd help you, didn't I?" Carlos thought about suggesting they find a new, real town to replace Night Vale, but he knew that wasn't going to work. "You know I love y-"  
At that point Carlos had to stop talking because the air in his lungs was turning to sand. Spinning around, Cecil saw the manifestation in the room with them, clenching its hands into fists.  
"YOU STUPID, WORTHLESS OUTSIDER! S-STOP TRYING TO TRICK US WITH YOUR SUPPOSED ‘LOVE’! DON'T YOU DARE RUIN OUR PARADISE!"  
The Manifestation found itself slammed against a wall by some great, invisible force. Carlos stopped coughing up sand and started breathing heavily. Cecil stood there, his eyes glowing purple.  
"Our paradise?" Cecil replied, in a horribly calm voice. "Our paradise?!"  
"IDIOT!" The manifestation shouted. "What the hell are you-"  
The manifestation’s skin suddenly became sand-like again. "Oh, well then, it seems that we have made up our minds." It then dissolved into sand.  
"Carlos, are you okay?"  
"Yes, I'm fine." Carlos’s mouth still tasted like sand. "Hey, you can control your powers now!"  
"Well, I guess I can now." Cecil snapped his fingers and the room around them disintegrated into sand. He raised his hand slightly and a tree grew out of the ground. "Carlos, this is great!"  
"Yeah, it is very interesting." Carlos leaned over to inspect the tree.  
"I mean, it's--OH! OUCH! AHHH!" Cecil screamed in pain as his headache returned.  
The ground shook. If this was a video game, that would've been the cue for the manifestation to rise from the ground in its giant final form and fight Carlos. But it wasn't a video game and the manifestation had no final form.  
"I THINK MY POWERS ARE OVERLOADING! This whole thing… this whole day was a real strain on them, and now that they're not subconscious anymore, they're – Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"  
"Cecil, if it hurts so much that you can't talk, you shouldn't try to…" Carlos was nervous, since he knew nothing about psychic pains or how to relieve them.  
A blast of purple energy exploded from Cecil's head, which Carlos barley managed to avoid.  
"Cecil! Are you okay? What was that?"  
Cecil grabbed Carlos. He didn't appear to be in pain anymore, but instead he seemed horrified. "Carlos…I'm so sorry, the overload is causing my powers to fade away, so…" Cecil’s hands became limp "Well, you're…you…this is going to…" He was on the verge of tears. This was worse than the Underground City business. This was going to happen right in front of his eyes.  
"No! Not yet!" Carlos shouted. "Isn't there something we can do?"  
Cecil gathered up what was left of his power and raised his arm, creating Night Vale out of the sand again. The sun shone above the dark roofs, the half dead trees moved in the breeze and everything looked completely real.  
"That's a great idea, Cecil! That street is pretty close to my lab." Carlos felt an enormous amount of relief. "I could try and find a way to… to… stabilize your powers or at least find some way I could exist without them!"  
"No, I don't think you'll have the time." Cecil ground his teeth, sweating from the effort of trying to keep everything together. He lowered his hand slowly. "Goodbye, Night Vale, goodbye," he said in his radio voice, before turning around and hugging Carlos, crying. "I'm sorry…"  
"It's okay, you didn't do anything wrong" Carlos tried to sound comforting, but the gloom in his voice was clear. This was it, first most of his life was revealed to never have happened in the first place and now he was going to die. This was it. "Cecil, can you promise me one thing?" Under Carlos’ shoes, he could feel the sidewalk becoming more and more sand-like.  
Cecil nodded.  
"I want to know that in the short time I existed I did something good, that I changed the world for the better. Just try to live the best life that you can outside of Night Vale. Also maybe try to get StrexCorp overthrown. That seems to be pretty important."  
They stared at each other for a moment, then embraced. Their eyes were closed, but they could feel the town around them disintegrating into sand.

Not far away, in a gore covered studio in Desert Bluffs, Kevin sat and read the news.  
"Oh, what a great day, Desert Bluffs, a new pony-petting station! Straight from the generous hands of StrexCorp." Kevin announced, and then, without warning, disappeared, leaving behind his clothes and a small pile of sand.  
Carlos wasn't sure how long his eyes had been closed, but an explosion jerked them open.  
The place that was once Night Vale was now just a featureless desert. Cecil was naked, eyes closed, still clinging to Carlos.  
"I'm… I'm alive!" Carlos cried happily. "Cecil, I'm alive! I can't believe it! That boy was lying about me being your creation!" His brain started connecting the dots."Oh… that explains why he acted that way… gah! I'm so stupid, why didn't I realize that? But, but I'm alive! And my memories are real! And…Cecil?"  
Cecil was now sitting on the ground, idly playing with the sand.  
"Oh, I'm sorry, Cecil…I'm just…I thought I was going to die."  
"Carlos, I'm really happy you're alive. I really, really am. But it's still hard for me."  
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Carlos sat down next to Cecil and gave him his lab coat.  
"Well…maybe a little kiss would help." Cecil replied, wrapping himself in the coat.  
Carlos kissed Cecil, then they looked at each other and chuckled.  
"So I think you said something about overthrowing StrexCorp?" Cecil asked as they stood up.  
"That's the plan. First we need to stop by what's left of my lab, and get my stuff." Carlos tried to look for where the lab had been. "Maybe we could save some of my research, I had a lot of sensitive stuff and science there, some of it might've broken when the table disintegrated… that probably had something to do with the explosion."  
"So… is the outside world really as cold and scary as the younger me made it out to be?"  
"From someone who has lived in it most of his life? Yes, sometimes" Carlos shrugged, then took Cecil's hand. "But we'll be alright, we have each other."


End file.
